Marketer's Lab

Calling All Marketing Tech Vendors

As part of the preparation for the upcoming launch of Upshot Institute, we've been compiling a huge database of marketing technology providers.  Currently the database features over 1,000 providers and is still growing.  To help navigate this massive universe of vendors, we are launching the Upshot50, a list of the leading marketing technology providers nominated and selected by you, the marketing professional.  Right now we're actively seeking nominations of marketing technology vendors who are doing fantastic and interesting things.  Please nominate any vendors you think are deserving at this link.  Once we have all the nominations we'll open up the voting  with plans to then announce winners this September.  So don't delay, help your favorite marketing technology vendor claim their fifteen minutes of fame!

The Carbon Footprint of a Blog Rant

"What's the carbon footprint of a banner ad?" I don't know, what's the carbon footprint of a stupid question? The banner ad question is from Don Carli of the Institute for Sustainable Communication (ISC) featured on a 3 Minute AdAge segment (segments I typically think are great BTW) taped at the AdAge Green Conference.  As part of Mr. Carli's comments, he highlighted the Institute had gone as far as engaging a team of gurus to build a tool which measures the carbon footprint of all of our horrific, disgusting, resource-sucking online marketing (my words, not his). Of the many ways we marketers consume resources, seems to me there are plenty of examples of resource consumption much more deserving of our immediate attention than online marketing.

To be clear, I'm a big fan, although not a militant activist, of greater environmental stewardship and improving our responsible use of resources.  What prompted my little rant here is seeing how those worthy green ideals are creating rather odd areas of focus. Would the effort that went into building the online tool have been better spent figuring out how to dramatically modify the direct mail industry or shining a light on other marketing areas which are more egregious consumers of resources?

Not to beat up on the direct mail folks but come on, physically moving pieces made from trees, dyes and other chemicals (via oil-powered vehicles) to people who didn't ask to get it in the first place hardly seems like a resource-friendly proposition.  We should be hammering on the whole direct mail industry to go beyond just "going green" by using recycled paper. 

I do believe organizations like the ISC and others in the industry are well-intentioned and have the right basic idea around a concerted effort to reduce the environmental impact of all marketing.  I have spent some time on the ISC site and it does look like they have some good work underway to address the problem, it just feels like a waste of time to dive into something like on-line marketing when there are so many serious offenders and better opportunities to make a meaningful impact on the environment.

Memes and "Temes"

A little bit of a departure here, but  this video from the TED Conference by Susan Blackmore is extremely interesting.  If you are familiar with "memes" and the implications for marketing, this talk takes the meme thing to a whole new level. 

Killing A Fly With A Shotgun

I was inspired by this piece on AdAge.com written by Greg Andersen to challenge some of the thinking about the use of marketing technology and the various new communications platforms.  Greg's piece leads with an example of his young niece questioning his foray as a 40-year-old into the world of Facebook.  He goes on to explore how from a branding and media standpoint it's important to consider why "because all the cool kids are doing it" isn't always a good excuse for running non-traditional media.  I really like Greg's style, it's a thought-provoking piece I encourage you to read.

The cool marketers are...well, doing something to leverage the latest, greatest marketing technologies.  It seems like we all want to "be cool" and plugged in using the newest social media tools, the super-whiz-bang integrated marketing platforms or the sophisticated behavioral targeting solutions.  I'm obviously a huge fan of all the emerging marketing technology, (hence the creation of this blog to focus on such things), but I think its important to be mindful of how much technology we employ.  I've seen plenty of examples of marketers "killing a fly with a shotgun" taking on the expense and complexity of big marketing technology solutions only to use a small fraction of the features and capabilities.

"The right tool for the job" strikes me as one of those timeless expressions that lends itself well to our current day and age.  My parting suggestion would be to become absolutely passionate about understanding the new marketing tools out there, but be selective in how, and if, they make sense for your situation.